Perfil de funcionários e eficácia de liderança na resolução de situações críticas

Abstract

This research is an empirical test of path-goal theory and aimed to: 1) examine if the situational context influences the evaluation of the leadership effectiveness, 2) investigate, considering the staff characteristics, the preference of leadership styles to resolve critical situations. Participants were 24 staff members of a hotel company in Aracaju-SE. Participants were subjected to hypothetical situations of the hospitality industry with four possible solutions that represented leadership styles, and asked to assess which leader resolved the situation effectively. Additionally, it was applied a semantic differential to investigate characteristics of the participants. The Chi-Square showed significant choices of certain leadership behaviors depending on the situation. The Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA showed that the choice for the participative leadership style to resolve production requirement situations was related to traits of authoritarianism and less need for structuring. The choice for the participative leadership style to resolve misunderstanding situations at daily tasks was related to greater traits of authoritarianism and perceived self-efficacy.This work adds to the academic evidence supporting partiallythe propositions of Path-Goal Theory of leadership.